The present invention generally relates to aircraft armament apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to the mounting of machine guns, representatively 30 mm machine guns, on light aircraft such as helicopters.
The external mounting on aircraft of weaponry such as machine guns has heretofore carried with it a variety of structural, operational and safety limitations and disadvantages. To a great extent these problems have been eliminated by using a honeycombed metal support plank such as that illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,234 to Sanderson. As illustrated in such patent, 40 mm machine guns are mounted on opposite support plank ends which project outwardly from the cabin area of a helicopter.
A particularly difficult external aircraft mounting problem is presented by the much higher recoil 30 mm machine gun. In previously proposed nonplank-based external aircraft mounting systems for 30 mm machine guns, several problems, limitations and disadvantages have been present. For example, due to the high recoil forces generated by firing the 30 mm machine gun, their external aircraft mounts have tended to be quite complex--an undesirable characteristic arising from the need to protect the "light" helicopter (such as an MD 500 or Bell 206 helicopter) from structural damage from recoil forces, and to prevent loss of pilot control of the aircraft during gun firing. Attempts to design an external aircraft mount structure for the 30 mm machine structure have heretofore not been entirely successful in either of these areas.
Other problems, limitations and disadvantages presented in the use of both aircraft and ground-mounted 30 mm machine guns have to do with the construction and operation of the gun itself. The three primary areas of such problems, limitations and disadvantages in conventionally constructed 30 mm machine guns arise from (1) their complex construction, (2) their heretofore unavoidable high firing recoil forces, and (3) the difficulty in field servicing the guns.
The complex construction of traditionally configured 30 mm machine guns can lead to reliability problems and difficult and expensive fabrication operations. The high recoil forces of conventional 30 mm machine guns undesirably diminishes their firing controllability and accuracy and, as mentioned above, has made it quite difficult to mount 30 mm machine guns on light aircraft such as helicopters. Further, the difficulty in field servicing the guns typically requires that they be uncoupled from the aircraft and taken to a special maintenance facility to be worked on by a specialized technician having an aircraft mechanic/ordnance skill level. This has been true even for routine gun cleaning and maintenance services. Additionally, to simply clean a conventionally constructed 30 mm machine gun it has to be taken nearly completely apart--a tedious task entailing removing countless screws, bolts and other fasteners and then replacing them after the gun cleaning task is completed.
From the foregoing it can readily be seen that a need exists for a 30 mm machine gun that eliminates or at least substantially reduces the above-mentioned problems, limitations and disadvantages commonly associated with 30 mm machine guns of conventional construction. It is to this need that the present invention is directed.